Key sur(VIR)val factors in water supply companies: some lessons from Poland

This paper presents the outcomes of research on managerial decisions that were made as a first reaction to the economic crisis caused by the SARS-Cov-19 virus (the coronacrisis). The research was carried out among 116 companies from thewater supply sector operating in Poland that includes water supply and sewage. The results indicate which elements were perceived bymanagers as key factors for survival and further functioning. It is clear that the most frequent managerial decisions made were reducing investments and sending employees for home office work, as well as prolonging the payment deadlines. Interestingly, investment reductions were accompanied by sustaining the R&D expenses, as the researched organisations desired to stay competitive and innovative right after the crisis. Only a few of the water supply companies decided to make workers redundant, as the majority declared the intent to protect the workforce, e.g. by sending employees on leave. The research has also shown that the companies approached the coronacrisis rather methodologically and systematically, which indicates a good level of managerial decision-making under pressure, overall enterprise preparedness for crisis situations, as well as staff involvement. Based on our research, we offer some recommendations concerning how the water supply sector organisations can prepare for similar crises in the future. Our research indicates that the decisions made had the following goals in mind: protecting workforce and sustaining cash flow, as well as securing competitive position after the crisis. Our research also focuses on the necessary decisions to be made in water supply companies before the next crises.


INTRODUCTION
In an attempt to diagnose the condition and situation of enterprises during the coronacrisis, the starting point was to carry out literature research on business turbulence caused by epidemics in the last 25 years, with particular focus on SARS in the Far East. Analysing the conclusions that business drew from the SARS epidemic in 2003, Day et al. () found that hardly any enterprise developed a comprehensive epidemic response plan, and those that prepared it, did so rather incidentally and to a limited extent (e.g. by limiting investments which reduced costs or increasing inventory materials for production, which caused an increase in the costs). Analysing the response of Hewlett Packard Canada (a company that provides computing and imaging solutions for commercial and residential use) to the threat of the SARS epidemic in 2003, Hollands et al. () found that in addition to introducing restrictions resulting from separating infected employees and taking care of them and their families, company managers placed particular emphasis on ensuring continuity of supplies of raw materials and semi-finished products, as well as on obtaining advance information in this regard from their suppliers.
Research conducted by Koltun et al. () concluded that systemic weaknesses during the crisis caused by the Ebola virus epidemic in 2013 were (1) inability to mobilise responses at an international level quickly, (2) lack of adequate production capacity at the national level and (3)  The crisis or economic recession is also a time when entrepreneurs and employees more often turn their attention to remote work. Unemployment or the threat of unemployment stimulates them to plan for higher mobility in the future. Therefore, it provides a greater opportunity to access the labour market (Ravaleta et al. ). The process of preparation of companies to face the SARS pandemic in the Far East in 2003 was nowhere ahead.
Enterprises operating there implemented survival strategies involving remote work and separating employees (Wozniak ). A concept of flexible or temporary work under crisis has been given attention (Trappe ) as it allows to increase the speed of acting and to react by shifting employees in uncertain economic conditions. What is more, flexible work allows to retain the most qualified workers.
While conducting research on the impact of SARS on the hotel industry, Leung & Lam () noticed that from the human resource management perspective, one of the responses to the threat was the reduction of employment and reduction of employees' remuneration. On the other side, in hotels in South Korea, measures have been taken to reduce the level of investment (Kim et al. ) as well as to reduce employment among workers temporarily employed.
Although problems in manufacturing activities due to the SARS epidemic were anticipated, they occurred on a smaller scale than expected because some enterprises had prepared for problems with the supply of raw materials. As a result, relatively few enterprises in the Far East went bankrupt due to the SARS epidemic; at the same time, this epidemic caused a dynamic increase in production in enterprises undertaking protective measures (Tan & Enderwick ).
Ongoing research links crises with unemployment (e.g. Dominguez et al. ). However, when analysing changes in employment during the 2008-2009 crisis, some crosscountry differences have been found: even though the GDP drop was more significant in Germany than in the United States, German enterprises kept their employment roughly unchanged, while American firms made redundancies (Burda & Hunt ). The crisis time typically pushes managers to taking decisions about employment: redundancies, shifting human resources or reducing worktime (Dominguez et al. ). Some studies even claim that there is a necessity to reduce employment in order to beat uncertainty with lean and effective teams in simple structures, while keeping highly trained specialists (Lieber ). Unfortunately, crises can result in investment reductions, as well as job performance (Heshmati & Kim ). However, reducing investments is implemented hand in hand with higher R&D expenses to improve existing products or develop innovative ones for the after-crisis time  Table 1.  Of course, we are aware that the list presented in Table 1 is not exhaustive or conclusive. It only embraces these decisions or actions that seem to be taken most commonly taken by managers during crises. Other actions such as making response plans or appointing crisis management teams appeared in the literature occasionally. Therefore, for our research, we have decided to take into consideration these decisions that were most often mentioned in our literature research. Hence, in the next section of this paper, we present the research carried out among 116 water supply companies in Poland right after the coronacrisis breakout in March 2020. The research results will indicate which factorsamong these identified in the literaturewere seen as most important by managers of the water utilities for survival and further functioning.

Data collection
The empirical studies were conducted in April 2020, as a part of a surVIRval research project. Below, we present a fragment of the research concerning managerial decisions that were taken just after the economy lockdown. The main part of the research was conducted using the Computer Assisted Web Interview method and a sample of 116 Polish water supply companies, whose characteristics are presented in Table 2. The questionnaire consisted of 17 statements assessed by the managers on the 7-point Likert scale (e.g. 'Please assess the influence of the following sofar undertaken actions onto the survival of your company: (1) Liquidation of part of the plant, (2) Sending employees on leaves …'. When the company did not undertake certain action, the statement was assessed as '0'. The intensity of undertaken actions was assessed between 1 (low impact) and 7 (high impact).

Results
The variables constituting the firm's activities were assessed from the perspective of their impact on ensuring business's survival, and the following ordinal scale was used: 0no action taken, 1no impact and 7very big impact. As a first step, Cronbach's alpha test, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and Barlett's test were conducted (Table 3).
As it can be seen in Table 3, Cronbach's alpha and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test results confirm the reliability of the research tool. On the other hand, the factors selected for this study are correlated with one another, which confirms the statistical significance of Barlett's test.
In the next step, a statistical description of the variables studied was made. We used the mean, standard error (    Scale: 0, no action taken; 1, no impact -7, very big impact. Applying the company size as a control variable to assess the intensity of measures taken by water supply companies (see Figure 1) allows the following relation to be Variable key: 1liquidation of part of the plant, 2sending employees on leave or furlough, 3working time reduction, 4employment reduction, 5production reduction, 6searching for new markets, 7offering new products and/or services, 8extension of payment deadlines for commitments, 9reduction in research and development expenditure, 10investment level reduction, 11searching for alternative distribution methods and 12 changing work to become remote.
anticipating the emergence of problems with financial liquidity much more often, they extend payment periods for obligations by actively managing the level of cash flow.

CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
The face of the crisis is the most difficult for companies of strategic importance, whose operation is related to securing vital infrastructure, maintaining appropriate hygiene conditions or maintaining work continuity. In cases of this type of enterprises, companies are naturally seeking solutions to overcome unexpected crises.
Our paper presents the research results concerning the managerial decisions that were taken as a first reaction to the coronacrisis and economy lockdown in 116 companies from the water supply sector operating in Poland. The results demonstrate that the most frequent decisions made were reducing investments and sending employees for home office work, as well as prolonging the payment deadlines.
We have found that together with investment reductions, the companies kept the R&D expenses roughly unchanged, aspiring to remain innovative right after the crisis. Only a few of the water supply companies made employees redundant; the majority benefited from leave and furlough, as well as introducing home office or remote work wherever possible. We also noticed that the companies sport a good level of managerial decision-making and general readiness for crisis situations. What was important, the personnel in the water utilities has proven to be helpful, involved, and supportive during the crisis.
Our initial theoretical section has shown some common decisions made during past crises. Some of themfor example, preparing special crisis plans or appointing crisis management teamsdid not appear in the literature frequently. When talking to managers of the water supply companies in Poland, they did not mention them either.
Therefore, in this section, we would like to extend the scope of the actions taken in order to suggest water supply companies some good practices and recommendations for the future. They do not derive directly from our research, but from some insights in the literature.
The management practice recommends some general or strategic actions: continuous monitoring of the external and internal environment, preparing anti-crisis plans, setting up a crisis management team, tackling crisis by managers and treating it as a phenomenon that can jeopardise company goals, training employees for the crisis time and developing a modern information system (Kuzmanova  Yin & Jing () argue that during a crisis, there is a short time for decision-making, therefore incorporating some routines, procedures and schemes concerning leadership, environmental pressure, information management and coordination are useful for crisis management and developing useful crisis plans in enterprises of strategic importance. All of the areas indicated above can be a foundation for a future research concerning activities to be undertaken by the water supply companies during crises.
Our research was carried out just one month after the economy lockdown in Poland, reflecting the actions taken by the managers as the first responses to Covid-19 corona crisis, and the lockdown of the Polish economy. It would be interesting to analyse how these actions have changed after several months from the first active coronavirus case, yet before the second wave of the pandemic; therefore, we have repeated the survey between May and September 2020 and will see where the managerial attention has gone.